The Shard

'I don't want to be romantic, but one of the most important things is to have happy buildings... it's like having a family with a lot of children.'

Renzo Piano

The Shard – my favourite building in London! I have been kind of obsessed and fascinated with this building since the beginning for some reason!

Not only is the entire building shaped like a solid pyramid of glass, but the very pinnacle is constructed from individual shards stretching up into the sky.

Designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano, who did you know, sketched the initial design of the building on a back of a restaurant menu, over lunch with the investors!

Renzo wanted it to be a vertical city, where you could live, work and socialise. The building has 72 habitable floors and contains shops, offices, there levels of restaurants, a 5-star hotel Shangri-La (newly opened) and residential apartments. The ground-floor is a public area with seating and plants.

Facts: It's the tallest building in Western Europe, 92 storeys and a height of 310m. There are 44 lifts, including double-decker lifts, and 306 flights of stairs. Altogether an incredible 95% of the construction materials were recycled.

Had a meeting with one my clients this morning, who has recently moved to the Shard and took the opportunity to capture this photo.
One place I am keen to visit is ‘The View ‘which is situated at the top of The Shard, on floors 68, 69 and 72, how amazing would the photographs taken from there be!